Figure 3 - Samuel Walter Washington’s tree

Cynthia Curtis, A183502, US7875087 - this set of Washingtons seems error free. As always, could use better bios and sources. But the Washington family book was used by me and others, and is cited in many of the profiles. The only corrections I had to make in matching profiles to the chart was resolving data conflicts, and even then, in only of cases. I added one bio & and a couple of MPs.

The pedigree collapse is especially interesting.

And Roberta Estes explained the pedigree collapse on her blog.

https://dna-explained.com/2024/03/28/washington-family-lineage-reve...

In other words, there are three ways that SWW can and did inherit autosomal DNA from the Washington lineage, beginning with Augustine. Carrying extra autosomal DNA would affect the expected degree of relationship, potentially for SWW with both of the male Washington burials. We needed a methodology to account for that.

Cynthia Curtis, A183502, US7875087 - given your own family story, I think you’ll be moved by this, as I was:

I joined this team someplace midway in the process, so I didn’t initially have the benefit of understanding why Courtney’s team [US Army] was involved – that they hoped to refine their processes to begin utilizing autosomal DNA for repatriation. I opined at one point that I was incredibly frustrated that this many years following the use of autosomal DNA for genealogy, the military was just now beginning to consider its use for repatriation, AND that they were not and had not been collecting autosomal DNA from family members of MIA/POW service members. Courtney hopes this study will open that door sooner rather than later. As far as I’m concerned, next week would be great! I was shocked that I had fallen into this opportunity, given that I have a POW/MIA family. member.

Oh, I hope everyone pings away! It’s not often we can say we have a long, clean, DNA & paper trail supported tree.